No, you’re the puppet Donald
by digby
If you want to know how the dark lord Steve Bannon will get his way, read this piece about how he deals with Trump. It’s taken from radio interviews Trump has done of the past year or so with Bannon on Breitbart Radio before he joined the campaign:
The flattery often came before a leading question.
Last December, Bannon told Trump that, “I know you’re a student of military history.” Then, he laid out a case for questioning the U.S. alliance with Turkey, a member of NATO since the 1950s.
Wasn’t it true, Bannon asked, that the situation was a bit like the web of treaties that connected European countries before World War I?
“People were locked into these treaties. . . . It led to the beginning of the bloodiest century in mankind’s history,” Bannon said. He said that Turkey had changed since it joined NATO, turning to Islamism under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. What if Turkey was drawn into a broader conflict in Syria, perhaps with Russia?
“This is not something, Steve, that you want to end up in World War III over,” Trump said.
In other cases, Bannon would use his questions to frame policy choices — and then ask Trump if he agreed with the frame and the choice.
In the December interview, Bannon presented the problems of climate change and the Islamic State as a binary option — offering Trump, in effect, the choice of fighting one or the other.
“Do you agree with the pope and President Obama that [climate change] is absolutely a path to global suicide, if specific deals are not cut in Paris, versus focusing on radical Islam?” Bannon asked, referring to the negotiations that eventually led to a global climate agreement in Paris last year.
Trump said that what other people considered to be climate change was probably just weather. Radical Islam should be the focus.
“We are fools,” Trump said, meaning the Obama administration.
In the wake of House Speaker Paul D. Ryan’s early May announcement that he was not ready to back Trump, Bannon invited Trump to reflect on whether Ryan (R-Wis.) was showing “a lack of respect — not just for you, but for your policies.”
On issues ranging from trade to slowing Muslim immigration, Bannon said, “What [Ryan] wants is for you to drop those policies. Are you prepared to do that for unity?” When Trump later began to say it would be “better if we do get together,” Bannon interrupted, saying that Ryan’s version of unity would represent “a collapse of what you ran on and a collapse on what [voters] backed you on.”
“Well, you can’t do that,” responded Trump.
Bannon also seemed to recognize when Trump had made a potential gaffe — even when Trump had not — and to try to steer him back to correct it. The first time Bannon asked Trump about U.S. foreign policy toward Turkey, Trump volunteered that he had business interests there.
“I have a little conflict of interest, because I have a major, major building in Istanbul,” Trump said. “It’s called Trump Towers. Two towers, instead of one. Not the usual one, it’s two. And I’ve gotten to know Turkey very well.”
A little later, Bannon circled back, asking Trump to explain why his conflict of interest should not bother voters.
“They say, ‘Hey look, this guy’s got vested business interests all over the world. How do I know he’s going to stand up to Turkey?’ ” Bannon said.
Trump did not directly address the question.
Trump is an utter moron and Bannon isn’t. He saw that Trump was a fool and sought him out to use him for his own purposes. He’s an ideologue of a sort we haven’t seen in American politics and don’t yet understand. Trump is a dangerous, dangerous man in many ways, mostly because of his unpredictability. Who knows if Bannon can control him? But it’s pretty clear that’s his plan.
.